TransLink plans to build more bike parkades
For Erin O’Melinn, bike parkades at SkyTrain stations have made it easier for her to get around Metro Vancouver by bicycle.
O’Melinn, executive director of Hub Cycling, said her go-to bike parkade is at the Main Street- Science World station.
She uses the parkade to mix modes: she rides her bicycle to the station, parks and locks her bike in the parkade, and then heads off on SkyTrain.
“I often use it to get to meetings that are farther away. My main mode of getting around is by bicycle,” she said. “I’m based in Vancouver at the office. If I need to go to New West or Surrey, I will ride my bike to the Main Street bike parkade, leave it here, hop on the SkyTrain to go to the meeting, and then come on back and pick up my bike.”
TransLink is looking for a contractor to build four new bike parkades: at Burquitlam and Lafarge-Lake Douglas on the Millennium Line and Maple Meadows and Port Coquitlam on the West Coast Express. If funding allows, more parkades may be added at other stations. The request for proposal on Tuesday listed the project at $700,000 to $10 million. Existing bike parkades are at Main Street-Science World, King Edward, Joyce-Collingwood, Metrotown, and King George stations. The parkades are all glass-walled, lit and open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They cost $1 a day.
Bike parkades are accessible by enrolling online with a Compass card. TransLink said building bike parkades is part of its goal of increasing livability by creating a sustainable transportation network in Metro Vancouver.
“Bike parkades make taking a bike to transit easy and worryfree,” Jill Drews, senior issues management adviser, said in a statement. “We believe having a safe and simple place to park a bike before connecting to transit could encourage more people to try it.”
A bike parkade is especially appealing in rainy weather, O’Melinn said. “When it starts raining, it’s really crummy to have your bike sitting out in that for any length of time.”
She said by building more bike parkades, TransLink is looking to the future.
The fall version of Bike to Work Week is from Monday, Oct. 29 to Sunday, Nov. 4.